


Sleight of Hand

by kesomon



Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Now You See Me (Movies)
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Gen, Humor, Magic is Real, cursing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-28
Updated: 2018-01-28
Packaged: 2019-03-10 10:42:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 742
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13500214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kesomon/pseuds/kesomon
Summary: Jack reads a book he shouldn't have, and now Danny's the one to suffer.They shouldreallyput the warnings before the spells.





	Sleight of Hand

**Author's Note:**

> This can be read as a fusion or a crossover, either works. A spin on a plot idea I had: What if the Eye was called such because of the Eye of Agamotto, and by joining it you gain access to the sort of Real Magic that the Sorcerer Supreme wields, ala Doctor Strange.
> 
> The fic I WANTED to write, about the Horsemen wielding different aspects of DS-style Magic, refuses to behave itself, so I wrote this instead.
> 
> I realise that the book pertaining to Time manipulation in the DS movie was the book of Cagliostro but, in the movie, that book also dealt with summoning dark forces for immortality so I figure the Ancient One kept a tight lid on it. A wayward passage in a more harmless book about de-aging spells, however... _maybe_ got misfiled by the previous librarian, whom is sadly too dead to be scolded by Wu.

"Oh shit."

 

It started with a book.

 

"Oh shit, oh shit--"

"Jack, what did you do?!"

 

Leather bound, a stylised sigil of an eye embossed gold on the cover. Tucked away on the shelves of the library at Greenwich, where the Horsemen had been encamped since New Years.

 

"I didn't -- this wasn't -- I have no idea!"

"You were the one waving your hands around, you idiot!"

"What's all the shouting about-whoa, holy mini-me Batman."

"Oh my god, Danny??"

 

It was going on 2 months since they exposed Tressler in London, and while the Eye had much to teach them, there was only so much time in the day before one's brains crawled out one's ears from cabin fever.

 

"Fix it!"

"I'm trying!"

"Try Harder!"

 

Jack was the one who found it, hunting through the library for literary buried treasure. The symbol on the cover had drawn him in, and he'd dug into the tome with interest.

 

"This is too precious, I'm getting a camera."

"Merritt, don't you fucking dare!"

"Danny, stop swearing! It's really weird hearing it from your mouth right now."

"Don't swear? Don't swear! I'll swear as much as I like! I'm a goddamned teenager again!"

"Whoa, hey, what's going on in -- oh...someone want to explain what happened here?"

 

In his defence-

 

"Oh trust me, Wilder, there is no coming back from this, you are going to fix this and then you are _dead_!"

"Uh, is that realistically or metaphorically, Danny-boy, because he's already 'died' once--"

"MERRITT, SHUT UP!"

 

 _In his defence_ (!) Jack was not quite up to speed on reading Sanskrit, and really, what harm had ever come from reading a book's phonetics and following a series of hand-gestures?

 

"A lot of harm, evidently, if you just burst into a room and start shouting about trying a new trick without _reading the entire instruction manual--"  
_

"Oh please, Danny, like you've never done that."

"I thought it was a new kind of card trick!"

 

So Jack had maybe gotten over-excited. And maybe, when the first odd illusions of green light started forming shapes in the air, trailing his finger-movements, he should've stopped. And just maybe, he should've questioned seeing those illusions in the first place, because he hadn't set anything up for special effects.

 

"So you started hallucinating and you didn't think anything was _wrong_?"

"I only figured it was Danny's chemistry thing; he's got all that stuff out on the counter working on those gas dyes--"

 

And really, he hadn't expected it any more than Daniel when, finishing the twist of his fingers with a snap, gold sparks flared and blind them both. And when the spots finally cleared...

 

"I don't think I've ever seen Dylan face-palm this much."

"Guys, please, I'm trying to concentrate."

"Yes, guys, please, let the experienced magician fix the situation of me being 14 years old and _freaking out about it._ "

"Well, technically, what we're doing here is more sorcery than -- okay, okay, stop glaring at me. It's really not as effective with that face. Hold still."

 

Dylan gestured, deeply focused, and a ring of gold sparks formed in his wake, braiding with loops of green, bisecting and twisting to form a pattern between his palm and Daniel's de-aged scowl. He pulled his other hand back, drawing the... _spell_ to anchor on his wrist, and then spread his fingers wide, pushing the effect forward with a clockwise twist of his wrist.

Atlas swayed, stumbled, and was his proper self again.

He coughed, shook himself. Straightened his clothes, then straightened himself, and glared daggers at Jack.

Jack, wisely, bolted from the room.

"You'd better padlock your door tonight, Wilder," shrieked his pursuer, hot on his heels.

"You know, they really should put the warnings before the spells," Lula remarked, idly thumbing through Jack's book abandoned on the desk.

Dylan reached over and rescued it with a wry smirk. "I think the Book of Agamotto is probably a bit more advanced than you guys are, uh, ready for." Lula pouted. "I'll go ahead and return this to it's proper owner," he continued, walking out of the room. "Probably not too late in New York to drop in..."

"Drop in to New York? How? Are you gonna do more of that flashy hand-stuff?" Lula chased after him.

Left alone in the room, Merritt snickered as he swiped through the photos he'd taken of mini-Daniel, and wondered how long he'd be able to milk the blackmail material.


End file.
